The Dog Mansion

Some years ago, Hubby built a dog house. I can't remember now if it was built for one of our dogs who have since passed away, or if it was built for the Drooling Dog, the Wild Child's boxer, but it's the house the boxer lived in for the past few years until he (and his human owner) moved up to Humboldt about a month ago.

When the Wild Child moved, she didn't have enough room to take the dog house with her, but Hubby had big plans to disassemble it and make a trip up to Humboldt to deliver it himself--whenever he started missing the Wild Child too much and needed a little two-day excursion away from home to visit her. But as he started taking the dog house apart one day, it occurred to him that he could make the dog house much, much better. So began the building of the Dog Mansion.

I asked Hubby if I could take some photos of the Dog Mansion, and he asked whether I wanted the photos because I thought the house was that good or because I wanted to make fun of it. "Well, . . . ." I thought for a minute. "A little bit of both, I suppose."

The basic structure of the original dog house remains the same, but the interior is better braced for structural integrity. After all, they have occasional earthquakes in Humboldt.

The pet bed is old(ish)--nothing new there. But notice the fine moon door opening? That's new.

The front "porch" is old, but the Dog Mansion is sporting a new roof. Kind of like Spanish tiles, but different--probably the doggie equivalent though.

And did you notice the raised bowl holder mounted on the side of the house? I told Hubby that if it had been a TRUE mansion, it would have been a double holder, but at least the Drooling Dog doesn't have to bend far to get a drink of water.

I noticed, though, that the roof is angled to drain onto the side of the house that has the bowl. That could be a bad thing if you think about the poor Drooling Dog trying to get a drink of water in the rain and having water pour off the roof onto his head. On the other hand, he'd have fresh rainwater to drink. It's one of those bowl half full/bowl half empty problems, isn't it?

The Dog Mansion could use some new paint. When Hubby first built it, he painted it to match our house--as you can see from the outside wall of the house in the background. Frankly, I'm not sure if he did that so it would look more natural taking up a quarter of the patio space or if it was because he had a lot of that color paint leftover, but I can tell you that paint HAS shown up on quite a few projects.

For now, though, I think Hubby will hold off on the paint. Maybe he'll wait until he gets up to Humboldt and paint it there, to match the Wild Child's house. Or maybe he'll save the painting for another trip to Humboldt when he's again missing the Wild Child and the Drooling Dog.

Personally, I think it could use a window, a curtain, and some nice wallpaper. I may need to take my own trip to Humboldt one of these days.